Robert Wyatt: Classic or Dud?

Best records best to least for me: Rock Bottom, Soft Machine vols. 1 & 2, Shleep, Dondestan (either mix), Ruth is Stranger than Richard, Old Rottenhat, Matching Mole, Cuckooland (enjoyed it but the cheap keyboards are starting to bug me - Leonard Cohen syndrome). I don't listen to Rock Bottom very often at all, because it's such a charged object for me; it'd be like having the Koh-I-Noor diamond lying around as a paperweight.

End of an Ear is a prog-jazz record which I enjoyed, but it has hardly any vocals on it. Solar Flares Burn for You is an odds-and-ends compilation which is notable for some Rock Bottom demos and 'Little Child' which is one step away from being Lil' Markie.

i hardly ever listen to Little Red Record, but the cover is GREAT. doesn't it have a terry riley homage on it?

first Matching Mole album holds up though... the second side "wyatt-discovers-the-mellotron" is drony and fantastic

Frith says he was signed up to join Matching Mole for their third album. But then, the accident.

do you know of this single i mentioned upthread where he's playing w/south african musicians? i never picked it up and now i kick myself.

Oh, I've got that... it's "The Wind Of Change", credited to Wyatt and the SWAPO singers. It's bright and jolly and swingy and catchy.

and a 12 w/ UK faux-latin new pop types Weekend where he duets w/ Tracey Thorn.

Ah yes, got that as well. "Venceremos" is the title - though it's actually a three-way performance between Wyatt, Thorn and Claudia Figueroa. It was Working Week's debut single; their second, "Storm Of Light", featuring Julie Tippetts (aka Driscoll) on vocals, is also outstanding.

Another good rarity is Wyatt's cover of Chris Andrews' "Yesterday Man", which was scheduled as a follow-up to "I'm A Believer" but never released. Instead, it appeared (in 1975) on a cheapo Virgin 2LP sampler called V. I also like his performance of Soft Machine's "Memories" on Daevid Allen's Banana Moon, and his harmony vocals on Kevin Ayers' "Hymn" and "Whatevershebringswesing".

"Free Will And Testament", featuring Paul Weller, remains the last 7" single I bought (not counting second-hand stuff).

Why the Stanley Spencer of pop?

m.

Sorry to Ivor Cutler! Sorry to the Welsh people...but somehow welsh sounds like an English dude doing a bad Carribean accident to me at first listen!

Rock Bottom: still ruling the school.

ha ha...Scottish, dude.

I'm totally banned from the Commonwealth....

definitely worked better as a two sided record -- I like every track okay, but they don't work as well all in a row, though "Muddy Mouth" at the very end is way up there with the best of his stuff

I love "Yesterday Man" so much. No idea why that wasn't a single.

Handy cided to leave
He'd come apart at the seam - endangered life and lawn order before
The more since he lies (even under oaf handy lies) when he feels caught
Between righthand wrong. I think he just might have been wrong this time
Which in turn left him with few alternatives to relieving himself by hand
Alone in the dark, wanking in the bog?

http://www.strongcomet.com/wyatt/lyrics/lyrics1.htm

"I'd meant to do a Neil Sedaka song but, typically, got the wrong Neil."

Check his entry on the C81 cassette booklet (that you had to cut out/staple from a page of the NME). I still don't know what precent serious he was...

And thank god I did, because cripes -- what a brilliant fucking collection. Of course, the Chic is time-stoppingly beautiful -- oddly, its secret is actually something in the way the tamborine is mixed. But the other chestnuts reveal themselves quickly. "Age of Self" -- I've had the (now out of print) Mid-Eighties comp for ages that includes the entirety of Old Rottenhat but never so much as noticed it. Casio beat cum subtle throwdown funk bassline cum wondrous lyric cum perfectly elegant melody.

The songs from Cukooland, particularly the Beach Boys/Water Canticle-esque vocal multitracks of "Foreign Accents", inspired me to go seek that record out -- and, of course, it's offhandedly brilliant how his cornet playing has adopted the phrasing and tone of Miles Davis -- as if that were simply the one sound he absolutely NEEDED in his arsenal. Combined with Shleep ("Free Will and Testament") the guy's been on a serious roll this last decade.

But in spite of his successful return to lush productions, in the process of digging through all of his records, I've found myself particularly drawn to his mid-80's minimalist stuff -- which extended to Dondestan which I hocked in college in a fit of immaturity, and of course that version's now unavaiable. There's a certain dignity to his use of so few materials in this material, particularly in light of its directly political nature. Works In Progress seems its perfect distillation, really, with "Yolanda", "Te Recuerdo Amanda", the exquisite reading of hitherto insufferable "Biko" and his collab. w/ Hopper "Amber and the Amberines" -- has any pop artist ever made doomed political causes sound so hopeful and infused with life? Admittedly, Old Rottenhat is significantly more funereal, but still...

Message from RW.....
Body:
After starting this little profile in honor of Robert's life & work, and after VERY quickly seeing for myself the love & devotion his fanbase feels for him, I soon decided to make the extra effort in bringing that love & devotion to Robert personally.

A few weeks ago I wrote to Robert, explaining the Myspace craze (in a roundabout way) and giving him the web URL in case he chose to check it out himself.

I also enclosed printouts of the entire RW profile, including the comments section and dozens of messages (addressed to him) which I'd received via the private message feature. If memory serves, I mailed the package a little under two weeks ago.

Today I received a reply, and there is no longer ANY doubt in my mind..... Robert Wyatt is the coolest man alive. Bar none.

How cool? Well..... first of all, he gave me back my stamps!!!

(The letter came inside a recycled version of my original envelope, with portions snipped away & taped together, the original return address now used as the regular one. Anyways, when I opened the letter, the stamped portion of the original envelope plopped out first, along with a friendly note: "thought you might be able to use these again?".... too cool, I tell you. Just too cool. I'll scan that little note as soon as I can.)

The reply itself was handwritten on a lovely origami design, again composed of recycled scrap paper. I'm assuming (and hoping) that Robert won't mind if I share some selected portions with his loving fanbase......

Hallo Alex -

what can I say xept thank you so much for your very kind thought, and actions

Not doing gigs of course, I don't actually meet or even know on the whole who's out there keeping an ear out for what I've been doing, so it's a relief to get such amiable feedback.

I dare not get too distracted, though: I'm still struggling to get the next things done, etc.

Besides, I'm vain enough already, in my little way! You ask Alfie!

RW

PS. I hope people'll understand that if I don't respond it's just that my communication methods are still stuck in the deep recesses of the Twentieth century!

Robert, if you're reading this...... thank you again for being who you are, and doing what you do.

PS. Robert also wrote a little message on the outside of the envelope.....

"thanks again - it's all a lovely surprise........"